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Thursday, 27 August 2009

Review - Gray Young - Firmament

It's a fairly well known trait of "post rock" music that the songs tend to be really, really long. Epic masterpieces with dips and swells, crushing lows and triumphant crescendos. Gray Young aren't like that.

They somehow manage to distil that indefinable essence of great post rock into short, punchy three minute pop songs. Imagine The Get Up Kids and Explosions in the Sky jamming together after having listened to The Beach Boys and A Brief and Triumphant Interlude off Against Me!'s second album. On the beach, in the sun.

It's really good, and it's not just achieved by playing faster than post rock usually is (although it is faster, I think). There's some really good songwriting going on here, and the whole CD has a lovely sprightly summery sound that you just can't help but smile to. And it does have crushing lows and triumphant crescendos; they're just a bit more compact.